Side-by-side distribution
DevOps
$175,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 36.4%
- Live roles
- 5,967
System Administrator
$116,052
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 50.8%
- Live roles
- 1,207
Highest-paying jobs
Platform Engineer
Staff+ Research Engineer, RL Data Platform
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Senior Software Engineer, Enterprise AI Platform
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Cyber Systems Administrator
Federal HPC Linux System Administrator, (Clearance required TS/SCI with Poly) On-Site, Maryland
Systems Administrator 3
Oracle Linux Systems Administrator - TS/SCI with Polygraph
Windows Systems Administrator - TS/SCI w/Polygraph
Systems Administrator 3 (On-Call) - Linux/Bash/Python/STE/STN/Docker/Kubernetes
Systems Administrator 2 - Linux/CI/CD/Ansible/Terraform/DevOps
System Administrator, Senior
Linux Systems Administrator
Systems Administrator - Level 5 Active Polygraph Required
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$126,800 | 81 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$153,850 | 44 |
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 32 |
|
CACI
|
$160,325 | 30 |
Leidos
|
$151,475 | 28 |
Elastic
|
$113,946 | 25 |
Coinbase
|
$202,483 | 22 |
Air Apps
|
$62,614 | 22 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
GDIT
|
$115,000 | 60 |
|
Leidos
|
$129,575 | 50 |
|
CACI
|
$116,650 | 41 |
|
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$126,800 | 24 |
Amentum
|
$142,500 | 22 |
|
Northrop Grumman
|
$117,700 | 21 |
Saalex
|
$92,500 | 20 |
| PA Parsons | $142,300 | 17 |
DevOps salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $228,825 | 302 |
| New York | $210,000 | 281 |
| Seattle | $205,000 | 129 |
| Los Angeles | $185,000 | 35 |
| Boston | $185,000 | 63 |
| Denver | $175,000 | 49 |
| Austin | $164,500 | 61 |
| Chicago | $160,000 | 82 |
| London | $156,744 | 34 |
| Atlanta | $153,300 | 33 |
System Administrator salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Denver | $152,500 | 3 |
| Seattle | $139,410 | 6 |
| San Francisco | $130,000 | 8 |
| Boston | $124,252 | 5 |
| Los Angeles | $112,500 | 5 |
| Atlanta | $102,860 | 3 |
| Chicago | $102,500 | 11 |
| New York | $97,500 | 13 |
| Austin | $95,000 | 3 |
| Toronto | $89,065 | 6 |
DevOps vs System Administrator: which pays more?
The median for DevOps is $175,000 per year (typically $140,000–$215,000), versus $116,052 for System Administrator ($94,800–$139,260). That puts DevOps about 51% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so DevOps and System Administrator are compared on equal terms regardless of the currency each role was originally posted in. Only roles that publish a salary range feed the medians; numbers refresh every few hours as new roles post and older ones close, so this comparison reflects the market right now rather than a fixed survey. Use it as a directional benchmark when weighing one path against the other.